Life's Too Short!

What kind of Ridonculous phrase is that? Have you talked to a lady who just gave birth. She won't tell you that the last 9months have been too short! What is that phrase mean anyway? That I need to worry every second because tomorrow I might get hit by a bus or kick the can in some random-against-all-odds way? OR is it referring to the fact that many people reach the end of their life expectancy and look back over their years only to realize they haven't done what they wanted to or accomplished things they had hoped to? May I state boldly that I disagree with both definitions and I propose that we cease to use this silly phrase and instead remind ourselves that life is LONG and in some occasions feels TOO long.

I look to great examples like Einstein and Socrates. One dedicated his life to studying Pi and the laws of gravity and the other studied philosophy (something not even concrete nor fully attainable in this life). Both are things that require patience and lots of time. I heard on the radio yesterday that one girl has been heading up a 10yr study of Narwales. She and her crew go out to the ice every year and just wait to see if they can catch one of these huge whale type animals with long horns on the front of their foreheads like unicorns. 10 years she's been tracking them! She definitely views life as a long journey with plenty of time to do what interests her most. These people are inspirations to me.

People who believe in the latter definition of the phrase "Life is too short," as listed above, generally are firm believers in bucket lists. A bucket list is a list of items made by a person who is near the threshold of death. The list includes items they SHOULD have been doing their entire life and that they don't want to miss out on before they keel over. I think that Denzel Washington portrays this group of people perfectly in the movie "The Bucket List." In this movie he leaves everything that has been so important to him for almost his entire life so that he can travel the world to see and experience all the wonders it holds. At the end of the movie, he finally realizes how important his family really is to him and he returns to his wife and kids. The movie portrays him as a hero and a completely happy man when he dies. But, they don't really portray how hurt his family must have been when he left without giving an explanation and how irrational it was to leave his life behind for a mere pleasure trip just to appease his own desires.

Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against bucket lists, in fact my now husband and I had a bucket list when we were dating and engaged, and we frequently add to it now. I know how exciting it is to cross something of the list and to look at the progress we've made and feel like life has really meant something to me. And that is the point. The list helps us to accomplish what we want to and we do it together or support one another to reach individual goals. It has become a great way to fill up an otherwise empty hour or Saturday night. Every time that I look at the list I realize how much time has transpired since we first completed our first item. The time has flown by quickly, but I would never say that it has been too short. In contrast, I have realized how much one can do in one month or even in one week. Therefore pointing to how long a life is.

One last example of how long life is. It can be explained in one word, Glenora. She is my step-grandma and as dear to me as any grandma could ever be. She has been on a feeding tube for many years, and despite her elderly age has remained independent and strong. She knows her limits, but she exceeds everyone's expectations who knows her. When I visit Glenora, she reminds me how long life is with her stories that seem to span back to the pre-dinosaur era. But, she also reminds me of how much joy can be felt in one life, how much happiness can be spread, how many things can be done with people that you love, how much service can be rendered and most of all how much one can accomplish when they never give up. In one sense you would say that she has seen it all. She reminds me that when we maintain an attitude that life is long, then we never give up and we have no reason to let life get us down. We not only accomplish what we want to accomplish, but we spend as much time as we need doing it, and we do it cheerfully because we know that nothing else matters. We don't let deadlines and expectations hang over our heads. We live long and prosper.